TheReligiousLeft.org

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

During last week’s vice-presidential debate — the first time two
Catholics have shared such a stage — a question about abortion was
inevitable. To some viewers, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s stance
— that he personally opposes abortion but does not believe in imposing
those beliefs on others — came across as a wishy-washy mélange of moral
intuitions. In contrast, Representative Paul D. Ryan, who laid out his
ticket’s policy to “oppose abortion with the exceptions for rape, incest
and life of the mother,” appeared to represent the principled, Catholic
anti-abortion position.

But while Mr. Ryan’s vision for abortion policy is far more restrictive
than current law, it is not the one advocated by the Catholic hierarchy.
Along with Mr. Biden, he has joined the ranks of dissenting Catholic
politicians, those who preserve a distance between nonnegotiable
Catholic moral teaching and civil law.